Frank McCourts Angela's Ashes si a genuine memoir and winner of the pulitzer prize. This dramatic stoey follows a poverty stricken, Catholic family, during the 1930's and 1940's in Ireland.The reader experiences a family's miserable life through the eyes of Frank McCourt's journal form childhood to adolescence shown through literary criticism, the author's style and theme.
Most literary critics question the authenticity of McCourts Angela's Ashes. His work has been questioned because "readers encountered several mistakes in McCourts account"(Thompson). At a book signing in Limerick, McCourt learned that he gave Willie Harrell, one of the boys in the novel, a sister he never had(Jones). This mistake leads one to contemplate if frank might have made up a good portion of the book so as to keep the reader interested in the already repetitive story line.It is understandable why people would question how true McCourts story is since "his book takes place when he's 3-64years ago"(Jones). it does not seem logical that one could remember so much from such a long time ago and in such great detail as McCourt seems to do. It is quite possible that most of the memoir is true, but it is also possible that he embellished some if not most of his earlier life.Leaving critics questiong how truth is really embellished in this work, McCourt still manages to win the hearts of the public with authentic writing technique.
Due to his lack of quotation marks, Frank's work encompasses a more realistic style. By excluding "the intrusive formality of punctuation marks", McCourt is attempting to make the "voices sound over and around each other"(Thompson). When removing quotation marks the literary work seems to visually flow with more ease. This also allows the reader to be able to visualize the story as it happens and not be bothered by punctuation. By using this writing technique, the reader is "allowed to see a mental picture of several characters simultaneously"(Thompson).